Survivors sought as China quake deaths rise to 66
BEIJING: Rescuers scoured through the rubble of remote villages in mountainous southwestern China on Tuesday in a race to find survivors of an earthquake that claimed at least 66 lives, with hundreds of people believed stranded or missing.
The 6.6-magnitude quake hit about 43 kilometers (26 miles) southeast of the city of Kangding in Sichuan province at a depth of 10 km on Monday, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) said.
At least 66 people were killed, state media reported, with more than 200 still cut off from rescuers in a remote scenic area. Scores were reported missing elsewhere.
Video from state broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV) showed firefighters pulling a bruised and bloodied woman from the rubble and carrying a survivor on a stretcher across a river on a makeshift bridge, as well as damaged buildings and streets strewn with fallen masonry.
The China Meteorological Administration warned that quakestricken areas would experience “significant rainfall” until Thursday and that landslides could hamper rescue work.
Footage shared by the China Earthquake Networks Center (CENC) on Monday showed boulders thundering down mountainsides in Luding county, kicking up clouds of dust as the tremors swayed roadside telephone wires.
At least one town suffered “severe damage” from landslides triggered by the quake, CCTV reported.
“Before 5 a.m., I heard a rumbling sound. The house shook so badly that I woke up immediately,” one woman surnamed Zheng from Sichuan’s Lu county told Beijing News.
“My brother’s house collapsed.
His house is an old one, built more than 10 years ago. My house is newly built, so the situation is better,” she said.
The quake also rocked buildings in the provincial capital Chengdu — where millions are confined to their homes under a strict Covid-19 lockdown — and in the nearby megacity of Chongqing, residents told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
At least 10 aftershocks of magnitude 3.0 and above had been detected as of 7 a.m., CCTV said.
More than 200 people are reportedly cut off from rescuers in the Hailuogou Scenic Resort, with CCTV airing footage of bulldozers clearing boulders and other debris blocking access to the area.
And over 100 people have been told to evacuate due to fears of a flash flood after a landslide cut off a tributary to the Dadu river, the Luding government said on its official Weibo account.
Rescuers in kayaks were seen transporting villagers downstream from a dammed lake formed by the landslide, CCTV said.
China’s State Council, or Cabinet, said last night it had dispatched a special team to lead the efforts, with CCTV reporting more than 6,500 people had been sent as part of the emergency rescue response.
President Xi Jinping called for local authorities to “make saving lives the first priority, go all-out to rescue people in disaster-stricken areas and minimize loss of life,” the broadcaster said.
Local officials have launched a public appeal for donations to help with relief work.
Earthquakes are fairly common in China, especially in the country’s seismically active southwest.
A smaller 4.6-magnitude tremor hit eastern Tibet less than an hour after the initial quake, according to the USGS.
An 8.0-magnitude quake in 2008 in Sichuan’s Wenchuan county left tens of thousands dead and caused enormous damage.
In June, at least four people were killed and dozens more injured after two earthquakes struck southwestern China.